Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Study: People Emit a "Germ Cloud" of Bacteria As Unique As a Fingerprint

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-got-your-smell dept.

An anonymous reader writes: According to a new study, we are all surrounded by a personal "germ cloud" as unique as a fingerprint. Lead author of the study Dr James Meadow says: "We expected that we would be able to detect the human microbiome in the air around a person, but we were surprised to find that we could identify most of the occupants just by sampling their microbial cloud. Our results confirm that an occupied space is microbially distinct from an unoccupied one, and demonstrate for the first time that individuals release their own personalized microbial cloud." The findings were published today in the journal PeerJ.

10 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Stop the presses! by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm pretty sure any dog could have told you that.

    1. Re:Stop the presses! by Virtucon · · Score: 2

      They do after I've had pizza and beer. It's a scientific fact.

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    2. Re:Stop the presses! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm pretty sure any dog could have told you that.

      Germs don't necessarily stink.

      At least to the level detectable by humans.

      OTOH, dogs have been shown to be able to successfully indicate which a set of samples comes from a human that has cancer. Including, falsely first thought, but then proven correct, indicating a sample from a person from the control group.

      I'd suspect them quite capable of differentiating the blends of excreta from different sets of bacteria.

  2. Pig-Pen by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 5, Funny

    So we're all just like Pig-Pen from the Peanuts cartoon strips.

  3. Follow up will be interesting. by Chikungunya · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Does this "fingerprint" bacterial cloud change with time? after antibiotic use? what about members of a family or people that recently began living together? It does not feel like this will have a practical use in the near future, but opens some interesting lines of study.

    1. Re:Follow up will be interesting. by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Does this "fingerprint" bacterial cloud change with time?

      This method of identification can be defeated by eating a taco.

  4. Re:Stop the presses and the TV scripts by Thorfinn.au · · Score: 2

    this will be in the CSI:XXX scripts next season

  5. Ha, so it turns out by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 4, Funny

    6 year olds are right after all, there IS such a thing as cooties.

    --
    Summation 2
  6. The real iCloud by rvw · · Score: 3, Funny

    Something tells me that this is the real iCloud. Now we need an app to connect to it!

  7. I love how... by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 2

    things I hear on NPR while on my commute home always show up on /. the next morning!

    --
    We play the game with the bravery of being out of range